iPhone vs. BlackBerry

Matt Stratton | Aug 7, 2009 min read

Overheard in our living room last night

Carrie: (watching me type laboriously on my iPhone) You using an iPhone is like you suddenly liking tall, thin girls with small boobs. You’re a BlackBerry man.

Matt: If I could type faster on this thing, I’d totally post that.

So yeah. I’m trying out the iPhone as an alternative to my corporate BlackBerry. And honestly, there are things about it that I really like. It’s far superior to my BlackBerry Bold in terms of web browsing, applications, and contacts. But where it (as far as I can tell so far) really falls far below the BlackBerry is in terms of email.

Yes, email. I know it’s no big shock that the BlackBerry lives and dies by email, and everything else is a second thought. But the iPhone is the exact opposite – it’s a device for entertainment and web browsing, that has, as my friend Marcelo put it, email is just a “nice to have” on the iPhone.

Here’s why email on the iPhone sucks:

  1. The only way to know I have an email is by actually unlocking my phone and looking at the Mail icon. On my BlackBerry, there is an LED that flashes when I have unread mail – so I can tell at a glance (and across the room) when I have email. On the iPhone I have to “slide to unlock” and then type in my passkey…just to see if I have email.

  2. There’s no way (without jailbreaking) to have my iPhone sent different message tones depending on message subject or sender. All email is considered equal. Granted, the BlackBerry doesn’t quite do this out of the box (although I can make certain emails a “Level One” message, which can have a different tone). This is a big fail for sys admins who need to be alerted differently for critical emails.

  3. It is SO DUMB about folders. I have two mail accounts on my iPhone – a corporate Exchange account and my Gmail account. Both accounts have some sophisticated rules set up to automatically file messages into folders depending on content and sender. The iPhone? Only tells me about new mail in the Inbox. I have to manually go into each folder to see if there is new mail there. At least on the Gmail account I can open the “All Mail” IMAP folder, but still, it will NOT ALERT ME to these messages. This is dumb. Sorry guys, but it is.

Other than that – I really do like the iPhone. It’s a much better device for everything BUT email. But, honestly, email is where I live. I am giving the iPhone 30 days as my main device, and if it passes, I’ll give up my BlackBerry. But right now, it’s not looking good.